The Big Story: Session opportunity

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke once again publicly about the government’s massive demonetisation move, asking the people of India to bear with inconvenience for the next 50 days for a greater cause. Modi’s measure, withdrawing all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes from the system and replacing them with new currency, was meant to attack black money and fake notes. But it has also tested the limits of the banking system and sucked liquidity out of the economy.

With Parliament’s Winter Session around the corner, Opposition politicians are already circling. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi pointedly stood in line at a bank, while criticising the move. Other leaders from across the country have spoken up about it, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee being the most vocal. Several notices have been given for the matter to be discussed in Parliament.

It’s hard to anticipate how the actual session will go, but there are already signs that some in the Opposition want to channel the public anger against the move inside Parliament. If that turns into just a shouting match, followed by the usual protests and walk-outs, our political representatives would have failed us.

The fact is that demonetisation has already happened. It can’t be rolled back (or at least is extremely unlikely to be) and so Opposition politicians must use the opportunity of the Session to have an actual debate.

They should question the government on what it hoped to achieve from this, what costs are being incurred and what are the next moves. Politicians from major state parties need to bring up the question of whether a decision this massive can take place without taking states into confidence: whither co-operative federalism? BJP MPs too may want to ask why the implementation has been so haphazard.

If the government is allowed to simply insist, as the Bharatiya Janata Party has been doing, that anyone criticising the move “stand with black marketers and drug traders”, then the session would have been a failure. This is a chance to get the government to explain what it hoped and what went wrong with one of the biggest decisions a state has ever taken. It can’t be wasted.

Punditry

  1. Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph thinks that the election of Donald Trump as US President may be more significant than Indian liberals imagine. 
  2. Narendra Modi may have more plans to fight black money, but at the moment, the cascading effect of demonetisation can outweigh gains if not handled well, writes Tamal Bandopadhyay in Mint.
  3. “The NDTV and Bastar incidents display afresh how profoundly undemocratic are the instincts of Indian politicians and public officials,” writes Ramchandra Guha in the Indian Express.  

Giggles

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Nate Rabe writes about a running theme in Leonard Cohen’s music: redemption.

While Dylan screamed through the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s making headlines, setting trends, shocking and mocking his audience, Cohen focused in on slowly, painstakingly ploughing one furrow at a time. Where Dylan seemed to snap songs in their entirety out of the ether, Cohen could labour for years over a single set of lyrics. His songs often sounded effortless but each had a difficult birth.

With the diligence and humility of a disciple, for over 50 years Cohen practiced his craft. He was a man of meticulous tastes. Things had to be just so. He was wearing dapper suits in the 1960s when most rockers showed the hair on their chests. He tweaked his lines over and over, never quite satisfied even after long periods of effort.